Clay fertilzers balls

Last week I placed some plants into clay pots. The reason for this was that I wanted to use soil but still be able to move plants around without stirring the soil around each time. Here's what they looked like right after dropping them back into the tank.
http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-C9sPaI-gY_g/UZxLAk91tCI/AAAAAAAAAps/lz5AxOu4hoQ/s1024/IMAGE_AB1E1E6A-20E5-4CBA-85B9-74CE8E4FB3FA.JPG



I don't have pictures of the smaller pots because they are completely covered up. I plan to add more Safe-T-Sorb to cover up the big pots also.

I plugged the bottom of the clay pots with a wad of clay. Put in a table spoon of osmocote fertilzer. A layer of Miracle Grow potting mix soil on top of the fertilzer, about 1-1/2" thick. Capped everything off with a 1" layer of Safe-T-Sorb. Got a little bit of soil when putting in the first pot. As soon as the water rushed into the pot, it burped and a pocket of soil rushed out. Didn't cause any problems and settled in about an hour. So I was done with that project but noticed that some of my plants had leaves that were curling down and I haven't fertilized the tank since I set it up. Didn't have enough pots for all the plants so I decided to make some clay balls full of fertilizer. Here's what I used.

Osmocote



Red clay


And here's what I got.


They were placed either directly below or around the roots of my plants. Everything is doing great and growing even faster. Hope to have CO2 on the tank by next week and really get some fast growth.

Bad news Bill, all the dwarf hair grass melted away. I moved it to this non-CO2 tank and completely dissolved in a week.

I need to start putting some plants in my breeder tank but I don't want to use substrates since its hard to clean. You idea is great I'm going try that as soon I get more clay pots thanks for the info.

Seriously a great idea!! Thanks for sharing! What will you do when it's time to add new fertilizer??

The fertilizer I used should be good for four months. Then I just need to repot them. Should be easy. Just pull the whole pot out, dump it out and add new soil and fertilizer. Nice thing about this method is that I don't have to worry about fertilizer getting released from the soil when I replant or disturb the substrate.

Ok...I HAVE to ask! Is Osmocote safe for the fish?

Haven't lost a fish, tadpole, or any of bug larvae. No detectable ammonia, nitrite, and barely any nitrates. Nitrates are not zero but very low.